Good Heart, Bad Intentions: another build thread

[osteoderm]

Autumn Photoshoot madness:...

photo by me.

photo by Courtney <www.holdingcourtblog.com>

photo by Tom Connors <www.tomconnorsphoto.com>

photo by Logan Hill <www.squaregos.com>

photo by Logan Hill <www.squaregos.com>

Please check out Logan's full set of shots at: http://www.squaregos.com/yamahahaha/

.....aaaand just for the record, that's not my usual helmet! My modern lid was deemed "not vintage enough" for these pics!

 

[osteoderm]

Note to self: The word "backfire" includes the word "fire"... and Uni's are flammable. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

 

[Hoperator]

She looks even better when shes rolling!

 

[osteoderm]

It was just a little dusting, but we had the first official snowfall in town this morning, and the powers that be have already started coating the roads with salt around here... While I'm still hopeful about squeezing in a few more riding days, It's getting time to accept that my "hobby" is re-entering the building stage!

Now that the bike is largely together and reliably working, I'm going to start cleaning up the loose ends, rough edges, unfinished business, etc. This afternoon I started out by replacing a couple hydraulic reservoirs.

I like the looks of the radial master cylinders on the bars, but there's no denying that the plastic OEM Aprilia/Brembo reservoirs are butt-ugly:

Translucent white plastic, scuzzy aluminium lids, oversized, dodgy mounts made from cobbled bits, and requiring more fairing cut-out for clearance than I'd like. Boo, hiss!

I had been keeping an eye on these ABM reservoirs, and decided to try them on. Here's the clutch side reservoir mounted, before swapping the hose over and removing the old one:

The new reservoir is a bland anodized silver that blends in rather than sticking out. The supplied mounts are simple and stealthy. Moreover, the new unit mounts right out of the way of the fairing cutout, letting me play with further clip-on adjustment!

Here's the brake side, after the swap, showing the sight-glass. The reservoirs looked great angled back parallel to the fork tubes, but with such a small volume, I wanted to keep them fairly level...

Here's the new view from the cockpit:

It's getting a little "busy" looking, but everything is still compact and small. Now that I have these mounted, I can re-make the (functional but ugly) gauge bezel and button up the wiring in the "dash".

 

[pregrid]

Nice, I like 'em!

 

[VosaME]

Very nice! That is a much better looking cockpit!

 

[osteoderm]

Very nice! That is a much better looking cockpit!

Thanks! It's starting to come together... Next I'd like to finish the triple clamps; I machined them and stripped them, but never did properly smooth them, etc. I'd love to get them to an even bead-blast finish then re-anodize them a matte silver/gray.

 

[cretinrob]

Wow my mind is blown your bike is awesome!

 

[1974jh5]

Man, this bike came out GREAT.

 

[osteoderm]

Man, this bike came out GREAT.

Thanks, but I'm not done yet!

 

[unclesol]

Awesome! Absolutely awesome!
I wish I had seen this thread earlier! I spent a few days in Newport back in September, and would have loved to have seen it first-hand...

 

[garyr]

Simply AWESOME post. AWESOME documentation. AWESOME Talent.



If you build another project bike consider using an older Triumph 1099cc Speed Triple engine. Most powerful compact engine you will come across.

 

[1974jh5]

Thanks, but I'm not done yet!

That's what I like to hear.

 

[osteoderm]

Simply AWESOME post. AWESOME documentation. AWESOME Talent. If you build another project bike consider using an older Triumph 1099cc Speed Triple engine. Most powerful compact engine you will come across.

Thanks for the kudos! I'm not against another project, but so far I've convinced myself to stick with air-cooled carburated singles and twins. If I luck into a good deal on another XS650, I have some loopy ideas that didn't make it into this build that I'd like to try.Otherwise, I'm looking hard for an XT600, XR600, or NX650.... But that's another thread!

 

[osteoderm]

Thanks, but I'm not done yet!

That's what I like to hear.

I've already starting pulling a few things apart for "further refinement", taking pics as I go! Stay tuned for updates...

 

[FLEA]

how are you finding your speedo/taco combination now you have had it on the road? any problems (day/night etc).would you have changed any of the combinations.

 

[Dorzok]

Thanks for the kudos! I'm not against another project, but so far I've convinced myself to stick with air-cooled carburated singles and twins. If I luck into a good deal on another XS650, I have some loopy ideas that didn't make it into this build that I'd like to try.Otherwise, I'm looking hard for an XT600, XR600, or NX650.... But that's another thread!

you better not be thinking about building what i'm thinking about building.

 

[osteoderm]

how are you finding your speedo/taco combination now you have had it on the road? any problems (day/night etc).would you have changed any of the combinations.

The Speedhut speedo/tach has been working well. The day and night brightness are independently adjustable, but since my headlight is almost always switched on, the gauge is almost always in the night mode. Either way, the gauge is perfectly readable, even with the "thin" typeface.

The small speedo/large tach is great. The 100mph speedo scale is perfect; any higher and the numbers would be crowded, and the digital display can show 100+ once the needle is pegged, or so says the manual... I haven't pegged it yet myself.

The 12k tach was, I admit, totally over-optimistic! Like plenty of other folks, I have this dream of building a 10k-capable re-phased screamer, but as the bike is now, I'll never use that range! An 8k tach would have been a much more reasonable choice.

The high-beam and turn-signal indicators are fine. Speedhut doesn't offer a neutral indicator as a factory option, but after dealing with them on the phone and email, I'm pretty sure they'd be able to put one in... I already had mounted that beefy green neon indicator into the upper fairing support, so I was set.

The shift light is pretty small and too off-center for my tatse, but you can add an additional shift light... don't know if it would suit the look of my bike, but I'm thinking about it.

Same goes for the mode/setting button; works well, even with gloves, but being off-center on the right of the face makes left-hand use (usual for me) awkward. There's a remote button option, but there again it's just more stuff crowding in, more wires on the bar, etc. I just leave it set to display the total and trip odometer 90% of the time anyways.

Does that answer your questions?

 

[osteoderm]

you better not be thinking about building what i'm thinking about building.

Dual-sport semi-cafe street-ish fun-bike built from a burly enduro thumper? I'd never claim any originality there. Seems to be a growing trend... I see CRD just released another one, for instance.

On the other hand, I'm 99% certain that the scheme I have for my next XS650 is nothing like your idea.

 

[Focusinprogress]

This entire build was AWESOME to watch come together.....such attention to details and a keen eye for problem solving (and creating lol). I have to say that I was a little worried about how that tail was going to look finished, I was worried it was a little too small and may come out looking akward....I don't hate it, but I think with a shorter side-profile pad/leather would look pretty OK.

truly fantastic work good sir!